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Wal-Mart is Coming
沃爾瑪入侵
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (branded as Walmart) is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31，1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America.
沃爾瑪超市（隸屬沃爾瑪品牌）是一家美國的公營公司，營業模式為大型連鎖折扣超市。根據2008年財富雜志全球500強的名單，沃爾瑪是全球財政收人最多的企業。這家公司于1962年由山姆·沃爾頓創立，1969年10月31日注冊，1972年在紐約證券交易所上市。沃爾瑪是美國最大的私人雇主和最大的雜貨零售商。該公司同時也擁有自己在北美的山姆俱樂部零售倉庫。
On June 30，2008, Walmart unveiled a new company logo, featuring the non-hyphenated name "Walmart" followed by a stylized spark, as it is referred to on store advertisements. The new logo made its debut on the company's walmart.com website on July 1，2008. The new logo will eventually replace store logos at the company's US locations throughout the year. Wal-Mart Canada started to adopt the logo for its stores in early 2009.
2008年6月30日，沃爾瑪公開了新的公司標志，完整的沒有連字符的“Walmart”名稱加上一個設計精美的火花圖案，一如賣場廣告上出現的標志。新標志于2008年7月1日在沃爾瑪官網上首次出現。新標志將最終在今年之內代替之前在美國使用的舊標識。沃爾瑪加拿大店在2009年上半年開始在賣場采用這個新標識。
Walmart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.
沃爾瑪在墨西哥叫作“沃瑪”，在英國叫作“阿斯達”，而在日本叫作“西友百貨”。在阿根廷、加拿大和波多黎各的沃爾瑪都是完全獨資。沃爾瑪在北美以外地區的投資結果有好有壞：它在南美和中國的投資獲得了巨大成功，然后在德國和韓國的投資則差強人意而被迫撤回。
Walmart has been criticized by some community groups, women's rights groups, grassroots organizations, and labor unions, specifically for its extensive foreign product sourcing, low rates of employee health insurance enrollment, resistance to union representation, sexism, and management efforts to pressure employees to vote for specific parties during national elections. Conversely, others point out that Wal-Marfs rapid growth and logistical efficiency has enabled it to bring lower prices to consumers and more low paying jobs.
沃爾瑪屢屢受到一些社會團體、女權組織或是基層組織還有工會的批評。特別是針對其廣泛的外國貨源、員工較低的健康保險注冊、對工會代表的拒絕、性別歧視和在大選時通過管理層施壓使得員工為某一特定政黨投票等。相反，其他人則指出沃爾瑪迅速的發展以及有效的后勤運輸才是使得他們能夠為顧客提供低廉價格和為社會提供更多收入不高的工作職位的原因。
The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. In 1970，it opened its home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1972, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47. By this time, Wal-Mart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As it moved into Texas in 1975，there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3 million.
這家公司在1969年10月31日注冊為沃爾瑪超市。1970年，在阿肯色州的Bentonville開設了自己的內務處理辦公室和第一個物流配送中心。沃爾瑪擁有38家超市，1500名員工和4420萬美元的銷售業績。該公司作為一家公共控股公司，在1972年10月1日起開始買賣股票，不久之后便在紐約證券交易所上市。該公司第一次分股是在1971年的5月，當時每股的市場價為47美元。到那時為止，沃爾瑪在5個州擁有業務：阿肯色州、 堪薩斯州、路易斯安那州、密蘇里州和俄克拉荷馬州。1973年沃爾瑪開始進駐田納西州，1974年進入肯塔基和密西西比市場。到1975年進人德克薩斯州為止，沃爾瑪已經擁有125家分店，7500名員工和3.403億美元的總營業額。
In the 1980s，Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates. This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. At the time, it was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores. In 1988，Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass. Walton remained as Chairman of the Board, and the company also rearranged other people in senior positions.
上個世紀80年代沃爾瑪持續快速的增長，并且截止到1987年公司成立25周年之時已有1198間連鎖店，營業額達到159億美元并且擁有20萬名合作伙伴。同年，該公司完成了衛星網絡設置。這是一項2400萬美元的投資，可以將該公司所有的分店通過雙向音頻和數據傳輸器和單向的視頻交流，同其設在Bentonville的辦公室連接起來。在當時這是最大的私有衛星網絡，可以讓辦公室追查到存貨清單和銷售情況并立即反映給賣場。1988年，大衛·格拉斯接替山姆·沃爾頓出任該公司首席執行官。沃爾頓仍舊是董事會主席，并且該公司也將其他人安排在高位。
